The children fully immersed themselves in a day from 1940; undertaking the role of evacuees who had been evacuated from London to the countryside. Our day started at the Wansford Nene Valley Railway Stationed, where we were greeted by our billeting officer, who took our register and led our day. As we walked through Stibbington, she identified the different houses where the children would have stayed with their new guardians and discussed the errands around the village that many evacuees would have completed. When we arrived at school, the children experienced a lesson within a traditional classroom - flip desks and ink wells. The children showed great perseverance when writing with the ink pens, copying out spellings and writing a postcards. To their surprise, the lessons with abruptly interrupted with an air raid siren, resulting in us gathering in an air raid shelter, where we learnt and sang songs of the time.
During lunch the children loved using the range of old-school toys available: marbles, stilts, ball and cup, hoop toss and wooden guns. Following the excitement outside, the children were organised into the new families where they filled in their identity cards before completing an observation task using propaganda posters. Many of the children, up until we got back on the coach, believed they were spending the evening with their new guardians; some happy than others at this news!
The children all represented the school fantastically throughout the day and absorbed a significant amount of topic related information.
Now onto our next trip, next week.
Mr Knowling
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